Aorus X7 v6 Review: Aorus has yet another slender substation on its hands. Weighing just 7.2 pounds which is impressively light for a gaming laptop like this, the Aorus X7 v6 (beginning at $2,199; examined at $2,499) is one of the lightest desktop replacements available on the market. Equipped with an overclocked Intel Core i7 processor and a Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, this gaming laptop has the power to handle anything we threw at it. Whether you’re playing games, exploring VR or watching a video, the Aorus X7 v6 has you covered. Just make sure that you’re near a power outlet and must carry the charger with you or else the party will end within 3 hours.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Design

The Aorus X7 v6 is an absolute beauty. Some subtle lines placed strategically along with the black aluminum lid give it slightly avian look that its white, backlit hawk logo suggests. The rear end tapers gently to strengthen the vents.

As beautiful as the exterior is, the inside of the Aorus X7 v6 is the real showstopper. The big, island-style keyboard is awash in a mesmerizing rainbow glow. While the keyboard is a sight to behold, it doesn’t diminish from the wing-like vents at the top of the body, which flanks the backlit power button. As if that isn’t enough raptor goodness, the touchpad is decorated with a dark-blue hawk that shines majestically when the light hits it.

Weighing 7.2 pounds, the X7 v6 might be the lightest gaming laptop available on the market. However, measuring at 16.1 x 12.2 x 1 inches, it does not hold the claim of the thinnest, and that honor goes to the 7.8-pound Razer Blade Pro, which measures about 16.7 x 11 x 0.88 inches. Either way, it’s still thinner than the Asus’ ROG G752VS OC Edition (weighing 8.9 pounds, measuring 16.4 x 12.7 x 0.8-1.5-inches).

For such a thin system, the X7 v6 has a healthy number of ports. Along the right side, you’ll find a USB 3.0 port, HDMI 2.0, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, an SD-card reader, and a mini DisplayPort. On the left, Aorus X7 v6 includes a USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI port, and jacks for microphone and headphones. The power port and another USB Type-C port are on the rear of the system.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Keyboard and TouchPad

The Aorus X7’s island-style keyboard is colorful and comfy to type on. The backlighting is quite bright enough that the text on the keys is clearly visible in both well or dim light environments. Though the keys are a fraction smaller than I would prefer, I welcome having the full number pad and the macro keys. Despite the small key size, typing experience on this keyboard is quite good.

The touchpad on X7 v6 is beautiful to look at, but it can be a trouble to use. I experienced a lot of cursor jumpiness as I was writing this review, and when I required highlighting text, there were times the touchpad didn’t respond. The corners of the touchpad worked well enough as right and left mouse buttons, but I would have liked a bit more feedback.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Display

Despite the Aorus X7’s matte display, it still managed to deliver bright, but inaccurate, colors with precise detail. As I watched the 4K trailer of “Tears of Steel” on the 17.3-inch (Quad-HD) 2560 x 1440 screen, I stared at the thin highway of veins moving across the pink folds of a brain in a jar. The pinks, blues, and greens on the futuristic modules instantly caught my eye, as did the red jacket worn by one of the artists.

The X7’s display can reproduce 114 % of the sRGB color gamut, matching the Asus ROG G752VS, however, missing the 127 % category average. Although 114 % is an excellent score, it has to contend with systems like the Razer Blade Pro and its average-breaking 189 %. Averaging maximum 252 nits on the brightness test, the Aorus X7 fell noticeably short of the 297-nit category average. The Razer Blade Pro and the ROG G752VS were much brighter, at 304 and 326 nits each.

With a rating of 3.5 on the Delta-E test, the Aorus X7’s color accuracy wasn’t what I’d expect from such a top-end system. It is much worse than the 1.4 category average. The Razer Blade Pro was somewhat better, at 2.3, while the ROG G752VS had the best accuracy, at 0.9.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Graphics and Gaming

Thanks to Nvidia Pascal 10-Series GPUs, avid gamers no longer have to sacrifice power for portability. The Aorus X7’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 8GB VRAM can deliver all of your gaming and VR needs with ease. When we tested the laptop’s VR readiness, it achieved 10.7 on the SteamVR performance test, which tops the 9.3 category average. The Asus ROG G752VS, with its Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, was just behind, with 10.5, while the Razer Blade Pro’s GTX 1080 GPU was the winner with a score of 11.

But before you go traipsing off on a virtual adventure, don’t forget that the Aorus X7 can also produce great frame rates on almost all modern games. The laptop hit 101 fps on the Hitman benchmark, which runs on Extreme settings at 1080p, thrashing the 90-fps category average and the Rog G752VS’ 89 fps. The Razer Blade Pro, however, pulled out the win, with 103 fps.

During the Tomb Raider Test (at Very High, 1080p settings), the X7 v6 hit 56 fps, which is just a bit short then the 58-fps typical average. It’s better than the ROG G752VS’ 52 fps, but not the Razer Blade Pro’s 65 fps. But the Aorus X7 v6 was the winner on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark, notching 74 fps. Though it missed the 90 fps category average. However, it still defeated the ROG G752VS and the Razer Blade Pro, which scored 69 fps and 65 fps.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Audio

Although those wing-like design at the top of the keyboard looks like speakers, instead they’re vents. The speakers are bottom-faced, which came as a surprise when I started listening to music or playing games. All songs sounded quiet and dull in my relatively small bedroom. I tried to correct the problem using the Aorus Audio Equalizer, however despite its deep catalog of presets (categorized under Movie, Game, Music and Meeting), I couldn’t improve the volume. I got a fuller sound in some cases, but not louder.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Hardware and Performance

The Aorus X7 v6 is outfitted with a 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-6820HK processor, 16GB RAM, but if you need more power, you will be able to get the overclocked speed up to 4 GHz. As it stands, I streamed an episode of Black Mirror with 18 other tabs of Google Chrome opened in the background while running Windows Defender, and the laptop showed no signs of lag.

The Aorus X7 also performed well on our benchmark tests. Laptop scored 16,411 on the Geekbench 3 test, which is just below the 17,320 category average. However, that score was enough to beat the Asus ROG G752VS (2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-6820HK CPU) and the Razer Blade Pro (2.6-GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU), as both of them delivered 15,563 and 13,406, respectively.

On our File Transfer test, the Aorus X7 with its 512GB NVMe PCIe solid-state drive took just 11 seconds to duplicate 4.97GB of mixed multimedia files. That’s a transfer rate of 462.7 MBps which is good enough to top the Razer Blade Pro’s (dual 256GB PCIe SSDs) at 391.5 MBps but not the 537.5-MBps category average or the ROG G752VS’ (256GB M.2 SSD) insanely faster at 848.2 MBps.

The Aorus X7 saw a measure of improvement on the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, where the laptop took only 3 minutes and 9 seconds to match 20,000 names and addresses. It was just fast enough to beat the ROG G752VS (3:23), average (3:34) and the Razer Blade Pro (4:06).

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Battery Life

As slim and light as the Aorus X7 v6 is, it’s a real power consumer. The laptop lasted just 2 hours and 23 minutes on our battery test, which includes regular web browsing over Wi-Fi. That’s way shorter than the 4:25 desktop-replacement average. The Razer Blade Pro did slightly better, lasting 2:45, while the Asus ROG G752VS endured for 3:42.

Aorus X7 v6 Review – Configuration Options

I had a thrill in reviewing the $2,499 version of the Aorus X7 v6, which comes with an overclockable 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-6820HK GPU, 16GB RAM; a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD with a 1TB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 8GB VRAM; and a 2650 x 1440 (Quad-HD) display. However, if you wish to save $300, there’s the $2,199 base model, which comes with 256GB SSD.

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Conclusion

Because of the Aorus X7 v6’s slender dimensions, you might feel that it is one of the gaming laptops that places portability over performance, but you’d be mostly wrong. For $2,499, the system features an overclockable Core i7 CPU and a VR-ready Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU with a Nvidia G-Sync display. The one drawback is its extremely short battery endurance. However you slice it, this is a laptop that can handle anything you can throw at it without missing a step.